Launch Station: TERA

2012 looks to add some big competition to World of Warcraft's reign over the MMORPG genre in the first full year of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the release of the highly anticipated Guild Wars 2 from NCSoft.  One MMO that has fell to the sidelines, so much that this writer among other gamers did not even know that it will be releasing tomorrow.  The game in question is Bluehole Studios' TERA (short for The Exiled Realm of Arborea).

After a divine world between Gods and mortals, the realm of Arborea has been left in ruin as a new metallic treat emerges from the underworld.  This threat is known as the Metallic race, Argons and there sole purpose is to destroy the realm of Arborea for good.  The remaining seven races, the Amani, the Barakas, the Castanics, the Elins, the High Elves, the Humans and the Poporis, must band together to stop the Argons and save their world.  TERA is a lot like many other MMORPG as it includes features such as questing, crafting and player-versus-player action (PvP for short), but it has many features to make it standout from other MMORPGs on the market.  TERA's biggest feature is its' fast-paced real-time battle system that has players targeting enemies with a crosshairs rather than clicking or tabbing each enemy individually.  Players also must actively dodge attacks than rely on a hidden dice roll to determine it for them.  This battle system immerses the player more as you feel more engaged than repeatedly clicking on one enemy until it is dead.  TERA offers a few different ways to control your character from the keyboard and mouse combo to a USB controller.  In order to deter gold farming, Bluehole Studios worked with CCP Games, the maker of the popular EVE Online, to create a currency called Chronoscrolls that can be purchased for real money or in-game gold.

As I am not a huge PC gamer or fan of MMOs, TERA does not really excite me personally.  For huge PC gamers and MMO fans, TERA looks to offer all the depth of a traditional MMORPG with the instant gratification of real-time combat and control.  It would have been nice if TERA got some much needed publicity as it will most likely pass by the radars of many gamers due to the lack thereof.  It almost passed right by me.